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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/34748/full/34748/sad-ending-for-swig-and-campers-won-t-forget-it/ <br /><br /> <b>Sad ending for Swig — and campers won’t forget it</b> <br /> Friday, April 11, 2008 | by <br /><br /><p>Bittersweet. This is a word that came up frequently as the children who grew up at Camp Swig led their own children through the Saratoga camp on Sunday. <br /><br /> This spectacular scrap of land tucked away in the wooded hills of the South Bay was the repository of their fondest memories — and, in many cases, the tangible connection to their inspiration to become and remain actively Jewish. <br /><br /> And yet, in its present state, Camp Swig is a carcass. Peering into its rotting, dilapidated cabins, one feels as if he returned to his childhood home only to be greeted by seedy men warming themselves over a flaming trash can. <br /><br /> It was largely this decaying infrastructure that spurred the Union of Reform Judaism to sell the aging camp. While a corps of local Jews obtained pledges for $5 million to buy Swig and convert it into a retreat center, the URJ made clear from the beginning that this was to be a strictly bottom-line decision. The URJ is currently in negotiations with a Methodist group that ponied up $6 million. <br /><br /> The URJ can come up with a million reasons why it went after that extra million dollars; most notably, the money goes directly into West Coast Jewish camping. <br /><br /> But while economic arguments can be won or lost, emotional ones cannot. And in the end, the bottom-line argument might not add up, either: Rabbi Ryan Bauer of Congregation Emanu-El (Swig counselor-in-training, 1995), said he’s spoken with a number of URJ donors who, angered over Swig’s sale, will no longer give URJ a dime.  <br /><br /> No matter how much the URJ protests that it has been ethical and logical, former campers and staffers are angry — and many complain that they’ve been jerked around. <br /><br /> Also worth mentioning is the loss of Swig’s Jo Naymark Holocaust Memorial, the notion of which upsets the camp alumni most of all. <br /><br /> In 1998, a $3.9 million deal to sell Swig to a private organization fell through at the last minute. Camp alums are praying the same will happen now. <br /><br /> If this were to occur, let us hope the estranged sides can sit and hammer out a deal that allows this beautiful land to inspire future generations of Jews. <br /><br /> As for the idea of a Jewish organization abandoning a Holocaust memorial, let us close with the words Rabbi Alexander Schindler spoke at the memorial’s dedication 25 years ago: “Future generations of Jews beholding the beauty and, above all, worthy substance of these stones will say our fathers and our mothers built this for us.” </p> <p> </p>

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